Spring clean for a better financial year: SME business tips

March 23, 2015

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Spring is definitely here and it’s the perfect time to clear out the cobwebs and dust that may have gathered in your SME business over the winter months and to spruce up your accounts and admin for a fresh financial year.
De-clutter: Set aside a few hours to de-clutter your office. A clean office will give you an instant lift. Go through your papers and file important documents and chuck out and shred anything you don’t need. Also sort through computer files and back up information you can’t afford to lose.
Reevaluate your goals: Take advantage of the beautiful weather – get out of the office alone or with your team and find a bright, beautiful spot to brainstorm ideas for the business. Reevaluate your goals – are you still on track, what has been working and what hasn’t? Are you stuck in the same thought patterns? What needs to change?
Preventing bad debts: Revisit the terms of trade you offer your customers. Are they taking too long to pay? If so, perhaps you need to have a word with them or if they’re late every time, it probably means they’re struggling to pay – and maybe you need to ask yourself if you really ought to work with people who can’t pay you?
Eliminate errors: We all make mistakes and errors can creep into our accounts very easily – perhaps you’ve forgotten to log that £20 train ticket or business meal you paid for out of your own pocket. Perhaps you’re using spreadsheets to record product sales and other data – and errors have crept in which affect the overall budgeting and forecasting for your business. The only way to avoid spreadsheet errors is to avoid using spreadsheets to collate data. Switch to a Cloud-based financial services application such as Financial Driver and you’ll always be confident that your data is accurate – 100% data integrity.
Check your tax: By getting your books up to date now, you can be a lot more proactive – once you have an overview of your business outgoings and incomings, sit down with your accountant and have a conversation about how you might be able to save tax this year. What can you start doing now that will have an impact on the tax bill your SME business will have at the end of the financial year?
Clean up your website: Whatever line of business you’re in, your website will be one of the most important parts of your business. Take time out to analyse the content, create an inventory of the pages on your site – and work out which pages are still relevant and which are not.
Work out which pages need updating and set aside money in the budget to address this.
Move to the Cloud
If you haven’t yet done so, now is the time to take the leap and move to the Cloud. Read our previous blog on why this is a no-brainer for SMEs.
You’ll save time and money and will have a much better grip on your company finances going forward. By using a Cloud-based financial services application such as Financial Driver, you’ll be able to access and compare financial data at a glance – without the need for hundreds of spreadsheets.
You can produce budgeting and forecasting reports very easily, giving you a clear overview and understanding of your business and where it’s going at any point.
You’ll never look back.
Contact us today for a free webex or live demo of how Financial Driver can change your business and your life.
Photograph by James Barker, Free Digital Photos.net